Her sister Jamila, 19, who was on holiday with Imani and her mum Donna, 47, rushed to her side when she heard the gunfire.

She said: “We ran outside and shouted ‘Imani, Imani, Imani’. I picked her up off the ground and realised she was breathing.”

The family managed to flag down a passing taxi, which drove them to hospital, but Imani died before they arrived. “The rest is history,” added her heartbroken sister.

Imani was with three other family members – two women and a man – in the wooden shack.

They were said to be wounded but stable in hospital after the shooting, which her uncle Mitchum Brown claimed was a revenge attack to do with an argument.

Popular: Little Imani was murdered whilst on holiday in Jamaica

Mr Brown described her as a “quiet, lovely, friendly girl” who had only just begun to grow in confidence.

She went to the Caribbean island twice a year as the hot weather helped her to cope with her blood disorder.

Her mum was described as inconsolable after the attack and her dad, Richard, who had stayed in the UK, collapsed when he was told his daughter had been killed. A friend said: “He’s in a bad way. Imani was his life.”

The family had been planning to return home to the UK at the end of the month.

Imani’s brother Dean Palmer, 27, was due to head out to Jamaica yesterday to meet the rest of the family, of Balham, South West London.

He said he was left completely devastated over the attack in the sleepy backwater town of Duncans in Trelawny on the north coast.

Imani was given special permission by her teachers to travel to Jamaica and she was attending a local school there, which her own primary school in England kept in contact with.

Noel Thompson

Shack: Wooden building where the eight-year-old was hit

Anne Wilson, headteacher at Fircroft Primary School in Tooting, South London, paid tribute to the youngster.

She said: “Imani was a happy, playful child who was popular with staff and pupils alike. She dealt with her illness very bravely.”

Mrs Wilson said the school was “deeply shocked and saddened” and added their thoughts and prayers were with her family “to whom we pledge our love and support”.

There have not been any arrests yet but Detective Superintendent Steve Brown said: “We’re not leaving any stone unturned. The investigation is continuing and we are trying to establish a motive for the shooting.”

The British Foreign Office is providing support and Jamaica’s security minister Peter Bunting condemned the tragedy. He said: “The senseless killing of a young, innocent child must outrage all well-thinking Jamaicans.”